Description:

The Grid, A Lattice of Place and People, is a revitalization of the historic function of commercial and residential Filleul Street in central Dunedin. It is a complementary process of rediscovery, form, proportion, and working in and throughout a definitive grid.

Filleul Street was historically a space full of artists, cooks, bakers, photographers, and more, with their individual homes down small alleyways off the main vibrant street front. The Grid re-introduces this vibrancy through various programs in the form of a market and residential space as an apartment space above to focus on providing inner city living for young professionals. The site initially demonstrated a strong grid-like nature through both the Dunedin Streetscape and the modularity and proportion of historic buildings in its surrounding context.

The road grid lines intersected the site on both sides forming a point and setting out the initial building grid. This grid notion is taken throughout the building to infuse this idea. It is seen through the cladding as an offset kinetic facade, bracing in the form of a lattice beam floor system, the positioning of structural walls and beams, and the set out of the apartments and the market space.

To create a contest between functions, the entrance to the upper-floor apartments can be found in the middle of the bustling market, this also references the historic placement of the residential entry point on Filleul Street. The contention is also found through large atriums at each staircase, which allows light to get to the ground floor and offers a private lobby space for each apartment through a metal grate floor.

The site is positioned on the border of low-rise residential and high-rise commercial Dunedin, so the proposed building steps along the site, referencing this transition. To increase vibrancy and continue to develop the street front, a permeable and highly open edge has been created along the bottom floor of the building with multiple entry points. This increases movement through and into the middle of the site. The current cityscape pays little reference to New Zealand vernacular, so the building has been designed to appear as light as possible through limited structural posts on the lower floor and a complex movable upper facade. This is also seen through a mass timber design that focuses on timber construction joints. The facade also offers protection from the detrimental summer sun and encourages solar gain in the winter.

The Grid design offers a look into the bustling life of the past, it offers logical and deliberate space in the thick of public movement and vibrancy. But also creates pockets of privacy for young professionals to progress into the professional workspace. It interrogates contemporary architecture in Dunedin and creates a building that reflects the historic sense of the city while offering a simple, but highly complex and thoughtful plan for future generations.